.TH COMPRESS 1
.SH NAME
compress, uncompress, zcat \- compress a file using modified Lempel-Ziv coding
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBcompress\fR [\fB\-cdfv\fR]\fR [\fIfile\fR] ...\fR
.br
.de FL
.TP
\\fB\\$1\\fR
\\$2
..
.de EX
.TP 20
\\fB\\$1\\fR
# \\$2
..
.SH OPTIONS
.FL "\-c" "Put output on \fIstdout\fR instead of on \fIfile.Z\fR"
.FL "\-d" "Decompress instead of compress"
.FL "\-f" "Force output even if there is no saving"
.FL "\-v" "Verbose mode"
.SH EXAMPLES
.EX "compress <infile >outfile" "Compress 1 file"
.EX "compress x y z" "Compress 3 files to \fIx.Z\fR, \fIy.Z\fR, and \fIz.Z\fR"
.EX "compress \-d file.Z" "Decompress \fIfile.Z\fR to \fIfile\fR"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The listed files (or \fIstdin\fR, if none are given) are compressed
using the Ziv-Lempel algorithm.  If the output is smaller than the input,
the output is put on \fIfile.Z\fR or \fIstdout\fR if no files are listed.  
If \fIcompress\fR is linked to \fIuncompress\fR, the latter is the same 
as giving the \fB\-d\fP flag.
Similarly, a link to \fIzcat\fR decompresses to \fIstdout\fR.
The
\s-1MINIX 3\s-1
version of \fIcompress\fR uses 13-bit compression.
This means that when compressing files on other systems for transmission to
\s-1MINIX 3\s-1,
be sure that only 13-bit compression is used.
On many systems, the default is 16-bit (too big).
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR tar (1).